The Red Ghost
by JayRayGee
Summary: After 4 members from the Remnant Anti-Terrorism Force are presumed KIA, their mission falls into the hands of an elite squad of 3 highly trained special operatives. But will they succeed in their mission, or will the hunter become the hunted?
1. Chapter 1: Reunion

**A/N: Real quickly before I get into this, this is an AU (Alternate Universe for those who don't know what that means) that is set in Remnant but is like the real world. So, there is no semblances, aura, Grimm or any of the things in the RWBY universe.**

Weiss tapped the end of pencil against her desk rapidly. It was just past six and all Weiss had to do was finish up her work and then she could go home for the weekend. _Just finish these reports and finalize some papers and you can leave,_ she thought. She hated paper work, but this desk job was way safer than being out in the field. Plus, it paid more which she enjoyed. It wasn't like Weiss hated her job either. She loved working for the Remnant Anti-Terrorism Force, or RATF for short. It was exactly what the name implies, a counter-terrorism force, designed to protect the citizens of Remnant from those who wished to do it harm. Growing up, Weiss always saw it as the perfect place for her. She loved to protect others, even if her father was against the whole thing. He'd rather her run the family business when she got older, but as soon as Weiss could apply, she did and was easily accepted.

She started out as a field operative and was sent to basic training. This is where she met Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. The three of them barely noticed each other at first, not even talking to one another for the first few days. However, when it came time to learn who your teammates were, they were all a bit shocked to learn they were on the same team.

It seemed like a mistake. You had Weiss, a quick-to-judge, always-assuming-leadership person. Blake, the silent-as-a-whisper, ninja, stay-back-and-watch type of girl. And Yang, the gun-ho, thinking-with-her-fists, no-talk-just-action fighter. Really, it was a match made in hell by a blind devil. The three girls formed the only three-man team in the institutes history, but it seemed like it wouldn't last long. They fought extremely often at the beginning and they all considered dropping out. But they soon learned to get along and not long after that, they were one of the best forces anyone had seen.

They were so good in fact that once they graduated, they weren't sent to the usual unit. When most teams graduate, they're sent to Raid and Recover. This is where teams are sent out on missions to disrupt and end large scale terrorism organizations. Most of the time a place of interest are locations that seem normal at the surface, but when looked into, are incredibly sketchy and warrant investigation. They also go after branches of the bigger terrorism groups, the largest being the White Fang. The leaders in charge have sent orders to bomb, shoot-up, and just generally terrorize communities.

However, Weiss, Blake, and Yang (Team BWY, pronounced Berry) were sent to the Specialization Unit. This is where recruits with the highest potential were sent. The mission here wasn't to infiltrate large organizations. The goal here was to eliminate high value targets, the ones that had long killing sprees, evaded capture multiple times, or even escaped from maximum security prisons.

Here, Team BWY made a name for themselves. They had a near perfect track record, only losing 1 suspect in their entire 5-year run. They had a 99% mission success rate and averaged 10 confirmed kills each. They were the best the Specialization Unit had to offer. Then after five years, they were given two options: Either stay as a team and do field ops until they retired, or go into a more calm and stable working environment for the organization. By this point, all three girls were beginning to grow tired of the constant stress. They had all suffered both minor and major injuries along the way and decided that maybe it was time to give it a rest. So, they all decided to take the calm route and get out of field work. And with that, BWY was terminated. They all took jobs within the organization and remained close friends.

Weiss became Mission Coordinator for the Specialization Unit. It was tiring work, but Weiss felt like it fit the best for her. Blake became the Mission Coordinator for the Raid and Recover sector, as Yang became the on-site training instructor.

Now, three years after the termination of the team, as Weiss is reminiscing on her past instead of doing her work, she was compilating whether leaving field work for a desk job was the best idea. Sure, she was safer, and it paid more, but she wasn't really helping anyone out. She was sitting behind a desk doing paper work, just like what her father wanted to do all along.

As she sat there, thinking about her past and future, Weiss heard a knock at the door to her office. She looked up, expecting her boss or another employee, ready to give her more paper work. However, instead of one of those people, she gladly saw a moderately tall, blonde, buff woman standing in the door way. She was leaned up against the door with one foot on the ground and another one the door itself, trying to look all cool. She was wearing what appeared to be some type of military outfit mixed with civilian clothing. She had on a pair of sunglasses that were tilted downwards just enough to show her eyes peering over them.

Weiss instantly recognized it as Yang. Weiss almost jumped up out of her seat and ran to Yang, since they hadn't seen each other in a while but she decided to have some fun.

Weiss stood up at attention, saluted Yang, and said "Permission to speak, Sgt. Xiao Long?"

Yang just facepalmed and shook her head, laughing at the whole situation before playing along.

"Permission granted. Now come give me a hug." Yang said. Weiss immediately dropped her act and walked over to Yang before the two embraced. They hugged for about two or three seconds to splitting apart.

"How are you?" Yang asked. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know, the old desk work. Filling out forms, signing papers, that kind of stuff. What about you?" Weiss asked.

"Yelling at insubordinates. Making kids cry. Weeding out the weaklings. Fun stuff." Yang replied with a smile.

"Making kids cry is fun to you?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah kind of. It's more or less to see who's the weakest cause we all know if you cry during basic, you shouldn't be in the program." Yang said.

"All right, I'll accept that." Weiss replied, giving a shrug. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you to do something this weekend." Yang said. Weiss turned to look at her calendar. Her weekends were mostly free, besides a few meetings here and there, most of which she could skip if need be.

"Uhh, yeah. I'm free. What's your idea?" Weiss said, turning back to Yang.

"Okay so, what do you think about you, me, and Blake going on an elite Search and Destroy mission. Capturing and/or killing a high value target in a dangerous environment that tests our physical and mental strength." Yang said, waving her arms and moving her body all dramatically to give emphasis. "You know, like old times?"

Weiss shook her head and sighed. "Yang, I love you, but your jokes are just too much sometimes. Is that all..." Weiss began.

"She isn't joking." Another person entered the room. Weiss turned to face her. It was Blake, and she didn't have on a happy face. Weiss turned back to Yang, who's facial expression had turned from happy to more of a sullen look.

"Wh…what do you mean 'Not joking'?" Weiss asked, now confused.

"Take a look for yourself." Blake said, walking past Yang and Weiss before plugging in her phone to Weiss' computer. After plugging it in, she projected an image of a man on the wall behind them. It was Ozpin, the director of RATF. The main man. The one that ran the show.

"Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. You three had the fiercest team I have ever seen in all my years working here. Which is why I'm sending you this message. While I do know your team was disbanded three years ago, I am coming to you in a time of need. We are facing a terrorist the likes of which no one has ever seen. They are cunning, smart, and extremely dangerous. I sent Team CRDL out a few days ago to investigate the area, but I haven't heard from them since. Which is why I'm sending you this. I understand if you no longer want to be out in the field but please, we don't know what this person is planning or when they will attack next. Attached to this message is the file on this person, only known as Red. If you accept the mission, it will begin tonight at the abandoned school just outside city limits." Ozpin stated via the message before disappearing.

There was a brief silence in the room after the message ending before Weiss spoke up.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Team CRDL was sent to the location on a missing persons mission five days ago. They haven't been seen or heard from since." Blake said.

"Wait, missing persons? That's the Vale Investigation Bureau's job, not ours. Why were they sent on that mission." Weiss asked angrily.

"Because the missing person was from the VIB." Yang said. Weiss backed off and gave her a look of confusion. "The VIB sent in a team of three after two cops were reported missing after entering the building."

"Those cops were following up on reports of five missing urban explorers that had gone missing over an eight-month period."

"Holy shit…" Weiss said, putting her hands in her head. The room fell silent once again for a brief moment before Weiss began asking more questions. "What happened to the other two members of the VIB team?"

"They both escaped but were both badly injured. One of them died at the hospital from internal bleeding. The other one barely survived. She recalled being attacked multiple times by someone who knew how to hurt people. The attacks were extremely brief, some only lasting five seconds. However, the injuries sustained were nothing less than serious. Large cuts, gun shot wounds, blows meant to do serious if not fatal damage." Yang explained.

"She went on to say that when they weren't being attacked, it felt like they were being watched or followed. She then said quote 'It felt like we were animals being tracked and hunted by an experience hunter'." Blake continued.

"Any images or videos of this assailant?" Weiss asked.

"Until a few days ago, no. However, the VIB wears body cameras on every mission. And because of that, we have this." Blake said, laying out a large image on Weiss desk. The quality of the image was low, and it didn't help that it was taken in near darkness, making it ever harder to see. Despite all that, when Weiss looked at the image, she saw what appeared to be a figure crouched on top of a large cabinet.

"It's the clearest, and only image of the person RATF is calling Red." Blake said

"Why the name Red?" Weiss asked.

"Their outfit. They mainly wear black, except for a long red hooded cape." Blake said, pointing to the image. When Weiss looked at it a bit closer, she could make out a red hooded cloak.

"Anything on this person?" Weiss asked, looking up from the image.

"Almost nothing, considering the files created for this person were created yesterday. The only things they have are that image, and the testimony from the VIB agent." Blake added.

"Did CRDL know about any of this?" Weiss asked in a very serious tone.

"They were told there was probably going to resistance and to be on their guard, but knowing them, they probably assumed it was something minor." Yang said, shaking her head in disapproval.

"What was their mission?" Weiss continued asking.

"Search and Rescue. They were tasked in finding the missing VIB agent since she was last seen alive." Blake said.

"And let me guess. We got their mission plus our own now?" Weiss asked sarcastically.

"Yep. Search and Destroy plus Rescue is the official mission objective." Yang said with a smile.

"Speaking of Rescue, we're using a new program to help aide our mission. The VIB have been using it for a few years now." Blake said, showing her smartphone to the other two in the room. "Basically, it shows images of the missing, their names, and other basic information to help identify them. Once found, dead or alive, you tap their image. Once if alive and twice if dead. If dead, a red 'X' will appear over their face. If alive, a green check. The app is connected to all devices within a certain range and using a specific Wi-Fi signal, so if one of us finds one of missing and taps the screen, the information is sent to all devices. It's also connected to the VIB database so the people and leaders at base can see in real time condition of the missing. I already sent the download link to your phones. Just download it and were it says, 'Connect to Devices', just type in BWY." Blake explained before putting her phone back in her pocket.

"So, you in?" Yang asked Weiss. "Blake and I are ready to go, we just need you."

"I'm in." Weiss said, which caught Blake and Yang by surprise.

"Really? You don't need a minute to think about it?" Blake asked.

"If Ozpin called upon a disbanded team to get a job done, then he must be desperate and out of ideas. Plus, I kinda miss the dangerous lifestyle."

Yang laughed a bit and Blake let out a small smile. "That's the spirit!" Yang said excitingly, grabbing Weiss and putting her in a friendly head lock.

"Okay, me and Yang already have our stuff ready to go. We'll probably need to go back to your place and grab your things." Blake said, talking to Weiss.

"Actually…" Weiss started, before removing herself from the headlock and walking over to a group of three filing cabinets in the corner of her office. Curiously, Blake and Yang followed behind her to see what she was up to. Weiss walked over to the one in the middle and pushed on the middle drawer, causing the filing cabinet to open like a door, revealing a duffle bag. Weiss grabbed the bag and placed it on her desk.

"I keep all my things on me, just in case something like this happens." Weiss said with a smile, before opening the bag, revealing an outfit, some small first aide and her weapon, a six-shot silver revolver elegantly engraved with intricate patterns. Along with the gun was several small books filled with bullets.

Yang and Blake both looked on in amazement before Blake spoke up. "They let you keep all this here, in your office?" Blake asked, knowing that the RATF didn't allow weapons in the office buildings.

"They let me keep this here since they don't know I keep this here." Weiss said, still smiling.

Yang looked up at Weiss. "Weiss, you dirty rule breaking girl." She said with a devious smile.

"I know." Weiss said. "Now let's go, Ozpin said the mission starts tonight. Where are we headed exactly?" She asked.

"Here." Blake said, pulling up a map on her phone and projecting it on the wall. It was a map of a large complex. There was one main building that was pretty big, and a couple smaller single room style scattered around. The main building looked like a perfect square with two large cross-sectional walkways connecting the building and giving the appearance for 4 sub-sections. Where the two cross-sections meet, there was a circular tower. "An old insane asylum back in the day. However, like most insane asylums back then, it was more of a 'drop off your crazy loves one and we'll beat the crazy out of them'. Patients horribly mistreated and some even died. It was shut down about 80 years ago. Then about 15 years ago, Vale thought it could save money by transforming it into a school. One big school for all grades, K- 12." Blake explained.

"It didn't work for long. Kids and staff alike claimed it was haunted, hearing faint screams and seeing shadow people. The school only lasted about 3 years before attendance plummeted so low cause no parent wanted to send their kids to 'The Haunted School' that they couldn't afford to keep the place in shape or even pay the staff, so it was shut down. Since then, no one has come up for a good idea to do with the place, so it just sits there. Oh, did I mention it's size? It's 500 feet by 500 feet on the outside wall and roughly 40 feet tall with most of the building being three stories. These middle connector walkways are open on the ground floor and have classrooms on the second and third. And that tower in the middle is four stories tall and holds all the admin rooms with the head office at the top." Blake said.

"What a cliché place to hide. Large, run down complex with endless rooms to hide in." Yang said.

"Don't forget the haunted part." Blake added.

"Yeah. If you ask me, sounds like lazy writing for a horror story." Yang said, crossing her arms.

"What about entry?" Weiss asked.

Blake walked up to the projection on the wall. "Here." Blake pointed so the side of building. "This is where the main hallway on the first floor is located. It's not the main entrance but is one of the side entrances."

"Why not just go in through the front entrance?" Yang asked.

"Because it's blocked off. The building belongs to the government and as far as I know, we didn't get clearance from them to enter." Blake explained.

"And why didn't we get permission?" Weiss asked, annoyed.

"Well, after 8 people went missing include 2 cops, the city government wasn't too happy or comfortable with people entering the building. The VIB got permission to enter freely. However, after one of them went missing, the city was a lot more reluctant to send in anyone. Ozpin barely got permission to send in Team CRDL. But after they went missing as well, the city flat out doesn't let anyone on the premise. Ozpin didn't even ask for permission for our mission." Blake said.

"So are we going to face resistance trying to get in?" Weiss asked.

"Ehh, probably not. There is a lot of police presence in the area now, but it should be easy to slip by them since they're only patrolling the main entrances."

"Got it. So, what's so special about the spot we are entering from?" Yang asked.

"Where we are entering is a sort of blind spot. The building is located next to a river. When the school was operational, there was a small walking path over the river to this entrance. However, after it was abandoned, the pathway never got used and subsequently fell into the river, leaving no visible path to the entrance."

"So how are we going to get there?" Weiss asked.

"Well the water isn't that deep, and the current is weak today, so we can just wade through it." Blake responded.

"So were doing an off-the-book, Search and Destroy/Rescue to try and apprehend a suspect capable of taking down RATF agents while also trying to find twelve missing persons, including four cocky field agents?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Blake responded.

"Hmph, sounds like our type of mission." Weiss said with a smirk.

"If you guys are ready, the mission starts now." Blake said.

"I just need to change out of this outfit, then I'm ready." Weiss said, heading for the bathroom.

"We'll be outside in the car!" Yang yelled out to Weiss as her and Blake headed out of her office and down the stairs.

As Weiss headed for the bathroom, she began to feel nervous. _This is my first mission in three years,_ she thought. _Do I still have the skills I once had? Am I ready? Are any of us ready? I haven't trained once in the last three years and as far I know, neither has Blake. Yang is the only one that has somewhat kept up with her skills and all she's done is yell at people._ Weiss shock off her negative thought. _You what, we are ready. We're team fucking BWY. If Ozpin didn't have confidence in us, we wouldn't have sent us on this mission._ Having changed her attitude and gotten rid of her nervousness, Weiss ran into the bathroom, excited to be back in the field.

/

"Okay ,you said the water wasn't deep and the current was weak, but you forgot to mention it was fucking freezing!" Weiss angrily said to Blake, trying to dry off the best she could.

"Weiss stop complaining." Blake replied.

"Yeah, shut up princess." Yang said, mockingly.

"I will hit you." Weiss said, pointing at Yang.

"Bring it on, pencil pusher." Yang replied, getting into a fighting stance.

"HEY!" Blake quietly yelled at the two. "I don't know if you two noticed, but this is sort of a stealth mission."

"Wait, it is?" Yang asked.

"Until we get in the building, it is. We don't want to cops to know we're here." Blake said, stepping between the two.

Yang nodded. "Good point. So what's the plan?" Yang asked.

"Well, this main hallway connects almost every room on the outer wall perimeter of the first floor. And the second and third floor have the exact same layout, with the additional rooms on the walkways. Our best bet is just to go room to room and hope they're asleep." Blake said.

"You see the size of this place? It's going to take a while to clear them all." Weiss said.

"Plus, we're looking for one person. It going to be like finding a poisonous needle in a haystack." Yang said.

"Yeah, I know. But we've worked under worse conditions. Remember Vacuo?" Blake asked rhetorically.

"Yeah Weiss, remember Vacuo?" Yang asked, nudging Weiss.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I remember." Weiss answered, annoyed.

Blake sighed. "Plus, I have a feeling whoever this Red person is will find us. They've been here way longer than we have so they already know the layout."

"You're going to have to repeat that Blake. Weiss was still thinking about Vacuo." Yang said with a smirk.

"Look! All I'm saying is that for a guy named Neptune, he shouldn't have been afraid to go on that boat!" Weiss said angrily.

/

 _Tick. Tick. Tick Tick Tick. Tick._

"Come on." Said a soft female voice, trying to get the scope on her rifle in focus. "Got it!" She said confidently to herself before trying to see who was at the side of the building. "Three government agents. All appear to be female. Probably RATF." She said to herself, looking through the scope and jotting down what she saw on a piece of paper with her left hand. She sat on the roof of the building in one of the corners that outlooked the surrounding area. She had a sniper rifle aimed at the trio on the ground but was mainly using it for its long-range scope. "Got an clues on who it might be?" She said, directing the question towards the man who sat tied up behind to her.

"Fuck you." That was all the man had to say to his captor.

"Ugh." The girl said, letting out a long, exasperated sigh. "Don't you know any other words, Chester? Maybe some that aren't so harsh?" She asked annoyed, turning around the face the man.

He sighed. "It's Cardin. And guessing by your 'analysis', that's probably Team BWY. You know, the fiercest team the RATF has to offer?" Cardin said with a smile.

"The fiercest team RATF has to offer? You mean there are people better than you?" The girl asked with a bigger smile. Cardin backtracked at bit.

"I mean, we were a close second." He said quickly.

"But what I'm hearing is that there is a better team than you, which means they will put up a better fight and be more of a challenge?" She said, grabbing Cardin by the collar, standing him up and leaning him over the edge of the building. "Am I right?" She asked eagerly.

"I mean, yeah I guess." Cardin said, nervousness and fear cracking his voice.

"Well in that case, I have no more need for you." The girl said with an evil smirk. She began to push Cardin off the roof, but before she let go, Cardin interjected.

"You won't get away with this, bitch!" He yelled. Suddenly, the girl yanked him back towards herself, bringing him within inches of his face.

"Please, call me Ruby." She said quietly before using all her force to basically throw Cardin off the roof.

He could only scream as he fell face first towards the ground, unable to put his hands out in front of him, as they were tied behind his back. He fell close to 50 feet before making impact with the hard concrete sidewalk. The weight of his 200 pound body crumbled into a large heap, neck shattering on impact, killed him almost instantly.


	2. Chapter 2: Ambush

****IMPORTANT****

 **If you are wondering "Wait, when did I follow this story?" don't worry. This is Public Enemy Number One. I just changed the name to be more fitting and to make it stand out more. The old title was bland and generic and this new title I believe encapsulates the theme of this story more.**

 **So don't unfollow or stop reading. It's the same story, just under a different name.**

 **Anyways, enjoy.**

The sound of a man yelling something caught the attention of the trio, still bickering near the entrance of the building.

"You guys hear that?" Yang asked, actively scanning the area where it came from.

"Yeah, I heard it." Weiss replied, her hand on her still holstered weapon.

"There!" Blake yelled and pointed up towards the roof near the corner of the building. As Weiss and Yang looked to where she was pointing, they saw an unidentified figure shove what appeared to be a man off the roof with force. The man let out a scream before his body hit the ground and crumbled like a poorly designed car in a crash. Just before impact, Blake turned away and shielded her eyes while Weiss and Yang continued to watch as the body smacked against the ground, letting out a bone chilling crack before slumping over to one side.

Before anyone else could react, Weiss unholstered her weapon and pointed it up at the spot where the unidentified person was last seen but couldn't see anyone or anything still there. As she continued to look around, Yang ran up towards the body in hopes of finding some life. As she ran, she brushed pasted Blake, who unshielded her eyes, cursed at herself for being scared, and followed Yang. Weiss soon followed, re-holstering her weapon.

Yang, being the first to leave, was the first to approach the body and as shocked at what she saw. It wasn't that the body was lifeless, it was that the lifeless body was that of Cardin. She cringed a little and covered her mouth as blood flowed out of his open mouth and nose, his body looking like a crumpled can. Blake was next to arrive and she too cringed, but not as much before bowing her head. Weiss, arriving last, just stared at the body of her friend before her.

Blake, being the leader, finally broke the silence. "Well, there's nothing we can do for him now. I'll make the call back to headquarters for body removal and we can mark him off the list." Blake pulled out her phone and a few taps later, a dinging noise was heard on all their phones as Blake marked off Cardin name from the list.

"We should probably get going. Cops might have heard that scream and could be on their way by now." Weiss said, turning away from the body

"Yeah." Yang said with a sigh before walking away. Blake was the last to leave as she had to take a few photos and make the call. Soon, she joined back up with Weiss and Yang at the side entrance.

"Okay, so remember, this is going to be difficult and could possibly take a day or two. This place is massive, and she could in any one of these rooms. We'll start on the first floor and work our way up. " Blake explained.

"Actually, I had a different idea." Yang interjected.

"Let's hear it." Blake said, intrigued.

"Let's start at the top and work our way down. That way in case of emergency or we need to escape quickly, if we're at the bottom, we can an abundance of ways to leave, versus at the top were we have to either jump or find a staircase. Plus, this person will most likely be higher up in the building. " Yang explained.

"I actually like that idea." Weiss said. "Change of pace."

"Alright. So we'll start on the third floor and work our way down. Any questions?" Blake asked. Weiss and Yang both shook their heads. "Alright, final check. Weapons?" They both nodded. "Check. Scrolls with the new app?" Yang and Weiss both pulled out their scrolls and a moment later, the both nodded. "Check. Vests?" They all hit the middle of the bullet proof vest they wore underneath their outfits. "Check. Okay. We're good to go." Blake took lead, followed by Weiss and Yang bringing up the rear. They entered from the side entrance and made their way down one of the hallways and soon found the nearest staircase. Once on the third floor, they began their slow and methodical sweep of the building.

Due to the nature of this criminal, just peeking their heads into each room wasn't an option. Instead, they had to check behind every desk, in every cabinet, and every nook and cranny for any sign of the fugitive. The interior of the building was set up as such; a long hallway down the middle with a classroom on either side of the hallway, one looking into the courtyard and the other looking out over the city. There were twenty-five classrooms on either side, fifty in total, and this only covered a quarter of the floor. For each side of the building, there were fifty classrooms, equaling two hundred per floor and roughly six hundred in the building. And this was just the classrooms. There were also janitor closets, bathrooms, teacher lounges, and storage rooms, all of which needed to be check. On the bottom floor, there were two cafeterias and a small swimming pool.

On top of all of that, there was the connecting walkways that had about forty classrooms per floor, one hundred and twenty in total, and the central pillar, which held all the administrative rooms and other various room, like the nurses office, front desk, and attendance. Finally, the principal's office, which was at the top of this pillar. Adding up all the rooms across the entire building, the team could guess there was anywhere between seven-hundred-and-fifty to eight-hundred rooms total, each one needing to be thoroughly checked.

To make the search go by as quickly yet thoroughly as possible, Team BWY devised a strategy. One person would stand out in the hallway as the other two checked the two rooms adjacent to each other. This search would only last about 45 seconds to a minute. Once one person completed their search, they would quietly leave the room and place a piece of pink ribbon over the door handle as a way to acknowledge that the room had already been searched. Once both of the ones searching tied off their ribbon on the handle, then they would move up towards the next set of rooms and the process would repeat. The person standing guard would rotate so every third room, the same person would stand guard. They repeated this process for the first fifty rooms, finding nothing and began to work on the next fifty.

As each searched, they each held their own specialized weapon. Weiss', of course, was her specially engraved six-shot silver revolver, which she held in her right hand. In her left hand, she held an equally as specialized knife. The blade was about five inches long and had the same type of patterns that the revolver had. She had received some hand-to-hand combat training, both from Yang and from her father, who believed a woman who knows self-defense is more dangerous than a man with a gun. Her arms were crossed so that her right arm/wrist was resting on her left arm/wrist, meaning that, if need be, she could quickly stab a nearby enemy instead of shooting.

Just like how Weiss' weapon matched her professional and elegant personality, Blake's did the same. Blake's personality matched that of an elite assassin. She was just as elegant and professional as Weiss, but just in a different sort of way. She could move more quickly than the other two on her team, and most importantly, more quietly. She had a gift of being very stealthy when the need arose, which is why her weapon of choice was a Glock 19 with a suppressor. At the moment, Blake had removed the suppressor, since she was with Yang and Weiss, and their weapons were not quiet. She did have it on her person however, just incase the need arose.

Yang's weapon was the exact opposite of Blake's. Where hers was quiet, Yang's was as loud as possible. Yang carried an Inland M37 Trench Gun with a custom paintjob of that of which replicated ones used during the Great War, alongside with flames painted on near the end of barrel. Yang had fallen in love with the gun after hearing stories of it being used in The Great War to clear out trenches, hence it's name. Before wanting to join the RATF, Yang wanted to be a boxer. She trained for nearly ten years in boxing before deciding to join the force. Using her already established hand to hand combat training to her advantage, she quickly gained a name as the person to go to for hand to hand training. So when it came time to close a weapon, Yang favored the Trench Gun as it allowed her to engage enemies at a close enough range to where her fists weren't out of the question.

After clearing nearly sixty rooms, Yang was getting a bit bored. They had found absolutely nothing yet, which was surprising to her. So, when it came time for her to stand guard, instead of doing her job, Yang instead pulled out her scroll and attempted to open up one of the few dating apps she had installed. She tried the first one but was immediately met with a _No Service_ screen. Yang silently groaned, then proceeded to open the next, but was met with a similar message. Yang sighed and threw her head back. She closed that app as well and tried to open a third but was interrupted by Weiss.

"Ahem." Weiss said, condescendingly.

"What?" Yang replied, harshly with her scroll still in her hand.

"You're suppose to be standing guard! Not texting some random guy." Weiss said, pointing towards the scroll.

"1: It's not 'some random guy', it's a lot of random guys. I'm pretty popular." Yang said, throwing her hair back with a smirk.

"Your tits are popular." Blake with a snarky response, causing Yang smirk to fade.

"And 2: I don't have any reception in here. Place is a fucking dead zone." Yang said, pocketing the scroll.

"Weird. I swore I saw a cell tower next to the building." Blake said, a bit confused. "Maybe it's just this one spot."

"Let's pray it is." Yang said.

"Let's pray it isn't. Now let's go. I don't want to be here for forever." Weiss replied, walking past Yang. Yang shot Blake a look of 'can you believe this girl'. Blake rolled her eyes at Yang before following Weiss. "She's right, let's move." Yang sighed again before following the other two.

As the trio cleared the second set of rooms on the third floor, they repeated their room clearing strategy. At this particular moment, Yang was clearing the room facing the courtyard and Weiss was clearing the adjacent one with Blake standing guard in the hallway. As her teammate cleared the rooms, Blake noticed one of the doors a bit ajar down the hall. It wasn't enough to be completely obvious, but just enough for Blake to notice. It clearly stood out to her and caused a slight alarm not only because it's the only door that swung outwards, since all the other doors slid side to side, also interrupted the smooth flow of the wall since it stuck out a bit. She looked towards her teammates to see their current position. Both looked to be finishing up their sweeps and headed back to the door.

"Hey." She whispered quietly, grabbing the attention of both of them. She gave a head nod down the hall. Both Yang and Weiss quickly hurried back to their friend's side.

"What's up?" Weiss whispered.

"See that door down the hall, slightly ajar, right after the walkway connection?" Blake whispered back. She jestered towards the door. Both Weiss and Yang glanced down the hallway. It took them both a minute to spot what Blake was looking at.

"That's what you're acting all worried about?" Yang said at a normal volume, however it seemed loud given the location and all the previous conversation.

"Quiet! Look, it's probably nothing but just in case it's something or someone, let's _quietly_ investigate it." Blake said snappy. Yang rolled her eyes but complied. The trio then proceeded towards the door, skipping over a few rooms in the process. As the got closer, the saw that there was an empty elevator shaft to their left. The elevator doors looked to be forced open from the outside. Curiously, Weiss notice signs of a struggle at the doors, including what seemed to be blood. But before she could open her mouth, Blake interrupted her.

"You two stay here and watch by back. I'll go investigate." Blake said, proceeding towards the door. Yang mocked Blake by pretending her hand was a mouth and opening and closing it while muttering Blake's command. This earned a punch in the shoulder from Weiss that caused Yang to grab her shoulder in pain and rub it. Weiss rolled her eyes, holding her weapon in one hand as Yang kept her weapon at her side, acting all pretentious.

Blake ignored Weiss' and Yang's bickering as she approached the door. Blake kept her eyes mainly on the door as she approached but occasionally glanced down the hallway, her weapon in both hands, ready to fire. By now she was about she was about 20 feet from her teammates. As she came closer, Blake heard the sounds of scurrying and things hitting the floor. Blake tensed up, preparing for a fight, although her rational side said it was probably a raccoon or opossum. Without breaking eye contact with the door, using her left hand, she slowly reached the grab the handle. Once she grabbed it, she took a deep breathe and swung it open with force. She quickly placed her left hand back on her gun and darted into the room. It appeared to be a small elevator maintenance room from what Blake could tell. She quickly scanned the back wall before looking up, her weapon ready to fire. For a brief second, Blake swore she saw a boot right above the door frame as she entered. However after looking up and scanning, Blake was surprised to see nothing, not even an animal.

Meanwhile, back in the hallway, Weiss and Yang watched with somewhat eager as Blake tactically approached the door. When she swung it open and enter swiftly, it elicited a snicker from Yang and an eye-roll from Weiss, however that could be projected at either Yang or Blake, probably both. Unbeknownst to them however, a large AC vent panel suddenly opened above and behind them. Right after it opened, a young woman, no taller than 5'7", dropped down right behind them. Neither of them heard the sound of her boots hitting the ground as she landed in such a way that minimalized it.

Once on the ground and steady, she stood upright and cleared her throat softly. Then, in the highest pitched voice she could manage, she simply said "Hiya!" with a big smile and her arms crossed behind her back. Yang and Weiss, extremely startled, swung around to see the young girl, standing innocently behind them. She was shorter than Yang but was roughly the same height as Weiss. The two quickly scanned the girl and both noticed the large weapon on her back. What happened next happened so fast, it seemed like a blur.

Before Yang or Weiss could properly react, the young girl pulled out a blunt edged scythe and swiped it, catching Weiss in the back of her legs and throwing her completely off balance. Before Weiss hit the ground, the young girl turned her attention towards Yang, who was in the process of pulling her weapon up. But before she could get her weapon fully up, the girl slammed the handle of the scythe into her cheek, knocking her too off balance. The girl then swung her legs and kicked Yang in the back of the legs, effectively throwing her to the ground as well. Blake, who was in the room when the girl first appeared, heard the commotion and quickly stepped out of the room. She saw Weiss already on the ground and Yang in the process of getting her legs kicked out from underneath her. Without hesitation, Blake pointer her weapon at the young girl and fired one shot. Unfortunately for Blake, the girl had just turned to look at Blake a split second before she fired and because of this, she was able to dodge the bullet by spinning to the left a full 360 degrees. However, when she was back to facing Blake, Blake noticed the Knight Armaments Company SR-25 that was once on her back now in her hands. And before Blake could move, the girl fired a single shot, striking Blake square in the chest, knocking her to the ground as well.

Upon seeing that she hit her mark, the young girl turned and headed for the elevator shaft, but not before seeing Weiss was about to stand back up. Without hesitation, the girl spun her gun around and smacked Weiss in the back of the head with the butt of her gun, causing her to drop to her stomach as she was knocked out. Looking back over her victims, she saw that all of them were either knocked out or too weak to fight. She holstered both her weapons and once again, in her high-pitched voice, she simply said "See ya later!" before headed towards the elevator shaft and jumping down it.

The trio lay on the ground for what seemed like an hour before Yang decided to stand up. Rubbing both her right cheek and the back of her head where it hit the ground, she crawled over to were Weiss lay face down.

"Weiss…" she weakly called out, shaking her teammates arm. Weiss replied with a groan and slowly but surely, began to roll over and sit up.

"What happened?" Weiss asked, rubbing the back of her head.

"We got fucking ambushed." Yang said, angerly as she reached for her shotgun.

"By that little girl?" Weiss asked, reaching for her weapons as well, still rubbing the back of her head.

"I think that little girl is our suspect." Yang said, using the wall as a support to stand up.

"She looked 15. There's no way she's our suspect." Weiss replied, grabbing her gun and holstering it.

"Well then, who just fucked us up then?" Yang replied scornfully.

"Well, that girl did but I don't think…" Weiss began, backtracking her statement.

Yang, hunched over, rolled her eyes and lowered her head. She took a few deep breathe before glancing over towards Blake. "Blake?" She called out, sounding worried. Weiss also looked over at her leader, who lay motionless on the floor. "Blake!" Yang called out again, but still no response. "Shit!" Yang cursed, dropping her weapon and began to make her way over to Blake. She was by no means graceful, stumbling a few times. But soon made her way over to Blake.

"Blake! You okay?" Yang said, sounding ever more worried than before. Yang looked down at her chest and noticed a small tear in her shirt, the exact size of a bullet hole.

"Oh no. Please no." Yang said, her voice cracking a bit. She quickly ripped off her top and saw a deep indentation of a bullet on her vest. Yang let out a sigh of relief as it appeared the vest had stopped the bullet, and a few seconds later, Blake coughed awake, groaning loudly.

"Am I dead?" Blake said, her voice weak.

"I sure hope not. It looks like your vest stopped the bullet. Mind if I take it off?" Yang asked. By this point, Weiss had made her way over and was now kneeling beside Blake.

"I got it." Blake replied, removing both her now ripped overshirt and then vest, the only thing remaining was her under shirt and bra. Slowly but surely, as her chest was still in pain, she pulled her undershirt up until, resting right under her left boob, was a large bruise. Blake looked down at the bruise and then threw her head back with a smile. "That's gonna hurt tomorrow."

"Glad to see you're fine. Now let's talk about what just happened." Weiss said.

"What do you mean? We already know what happened. We got jumped by a little girl who apparently knows how to use a fucking scythe and a SR-25." Yang replied.

"But that's the thing. From what I could tell, that scythe was blunt edged and if you weren't wearing that armor, it would have ripped through your chest and destroy any organs in its path." Weiss said.

"So you're saying that this vest was the only thing that saved my life?" Blake asked.

"Yes. Probably was using standard ammunition and not armor-piercing rounds." Weiss said, commanding the other two to scour the floor for anything rubber. It wasn't long before they found pieces of a rubber bullet scattered about. "See? It acted like a hollow point and expanded on impact. If you weren't wearing that vest, then you would have been killed."

"I thought rubber bullet require a specialized chamber?" Yang asked.

"Certain weapons and types of rubber bullets, yes. But you can configure a standardized chamber to fire rubber bullets. Just takes a while to perfect." Weiss explained.

"So not only do we have an elite assassin of sorts, we also have a gun nut who knows how to custom build and configure rifle chambers to fire specialized bullets?" Yang asked.

"Yes to both. And she probably knows how to craft the bullets themselves because I don't know of anyone who makes rubber bullets for a Barrett." Weiss replied.

"We're fucked." Yang said, concerned.

"Come on you two, let's find a place to rest." Blake said, beginning to stand up and leave, but not before discarding her destroyed overshirt. Weiss and Yang followed suit and the three made their way into one of the corner rooms in the building, ignoring the classrooms since they were too weak to fight.

In every corner of the building lay a large corner room. Most were teachers lounges with a few being science labs and large media rooms. As the three made their way into the room, they found it to be a science lab, with large countertop like tables and loads of science equipment. Since the majority of the tables were raised, stools were the common seating accommodations.

Each of the three grabbed a stool and made their way to a centralized table. They all took a moment to relax and recuperate before Yang broke the silence.

"So, that's our target?" She asked.

"I mean, if she isn't, then who is?" Weiss replied.

"Yeah, but she looked so young." Blake remarked, examining the newly formed bruise on her chest.

"I got a good look at her. She looked to only be a few years younger than us. Maybe she had special training as a child?" Yang said.

"Maybe." Weiss said, pulling out her scroll.

"What are you doing?" Blake asked.

"Calling for help." Weiss replied, scrolling through her contacts.

"What do you mean 'help'? We're the last line of defense. If we can't do this, no one can." Yang said, sounding a bit agitated.

"Right. We are the last line defense. However, that doesn't mean we can't call in support. Think about it. Technically, this mission doesn't exist. So if we call for help, who's really going to know about it?" Weiss said, before finding the contact she was looking for.

"She's got a point. Technically, they can't punish us for something that didn't happen, nor any accomplices." Blake added, sounding a bit excited.

"Alright then, who's this person?" Yang asked.

Weiss held up a finger towards Yang. "I'll tell you once I can get ahold of him. I only got 1 bar in here." Weiss said, bringing the scroll up to her ear.

/

Loud pop music played through surround sound speakers spread across a decently sized room. The room housed a bunch of computer servers and other electronic equipment. In the middle of the room, there was a bunch of large computer screens arranged i grid on the wall. At the moment they all held a different image but could all be linked up into one big image should the need arise. In front of the monitors was a large white desk with a glowing keyboard and mouse, a smaller laptop, a scroll plugged into an aux cord and a large gathering of trash to one side, most of it being bags of chips.

Residing in front of the desk in an office rolling chair was a 28-year-old man, singing along to the words of the song like a 15-year-old girl. For the parts he didn't quite know yet, he just mumbled through that section until he got to another part he knew quite well. The whole time that this was happening, he was tapping along to the beat using a two pens. He tried to sing in the correct octave but using just ended up cracking his voice. He didn't mind thought, as he was the only person in the room and the surrounding area.

As the song neared the end, the music suddenly cut out, much to the man's surprise. It was very quickly replaced by a default ringtone that played at such a loud volume through the speakers that the man jumped and quickly unplugged the scroll. Once his ears stopped ringing, and without looking at the caller, he answered the scroll.

"RATF ITD, this is JA speaking, how can I direct your call tonight?" He said in a professional tone of voice.

"Cut it, Vomit Boy." The woman on the other end sounded a bit distorted.

"Wait, Weiss?" Jaune replied, sounding very surprised as he took the scroll away from his ear and looked at the caller. Sure enough, he was met with a somewhat disgruntled image of Weiss that Jaune may or may not have taken without her consent. "How are you? It's been so long since we talked… I mean, how can I help you?" Jaune said, changing his tone of voice from excited to serious, trying to impress Weiss.

Jaune Arc, or Vomit Boy as he was commonly known as through the RATF due to a mishap on the first day, was the leading IT guy at the RATF. He earned this position after scoring 'lower than average' on field test, where he was originally assigned to be. This led to being put in an unsatisfactory team that overall did poorly when it came time for evaluation. However, after a chance opportunity during a mission, he was able to prove his ability to not only work advanced tech equipment but also able to hack into said equipment. It was from that moment on that the RATF shifted his learning from field work to IT work and working with the latest tech. However, because of the late change-over, he graduated a year behind everyone else and for a while lost contact with his former friends. However, after most of them retired or simply quit, he was able to reconnect with a lot of them including Weiss, Blake, and Yang.

"Wait, you called Jaune?!" Jaune her what sounded like Yang's voice on the other side of the call. She too sounded a distorted and farther away from the mic.

"Is that Yang? Wait, where are you?" Jaune said, confused at what he was hearing.

"Jaune, this is going to sound weird, but I'm on mission with Blake and Yang and we kinda need your help." Weiss said, her voice almost cutting out at times.

"You're on mission? I can barely hear you talking. Where are you?" Jaune asked, a bit worried by the sudden call.

"We're at the old abandoned school downtown near the river." Weiss replied.

"Where is that? I can still barely hear you." Jaune replied.

"Just use that spyware shit the RATF uses to track my location." Weiss practically yelled through the call.

"Hey, it's called Smrt City." Jaune yelled back. "Okay, it's technically spyware." Jaune said after a brief pause.

Roughly 20 years ago, in an attempt the RATF did to make it easier to find suspected terrorists, they were able to persuade Vale city council into letting them install something they called Smrt City. What is did was, after installation on very cell tower within city limits, was it made every phone number into a trackable location, similar to GPS. Phone numbers are embedded into a scroll's data, making the number non-transferable. This meant that as long as the phone was on, the RATF could use nearby cell towers to triangulate a person's suspected location. It's main feature over traditional GPS, and the feature that won over the city council, was that even if location was turned off, the number could still be tracked since that was linked to the phone's hard data and something the user couldn't simply 'turn off'.

When the announcement was first made, it was, of course, met with a lot of criticism. People compared it to that of spyware, which it technically was since you couldn't disable tracking and once your location was found, additional Smrt City features could tell you the exact location, the address of the scroll, and additional information about the area or place it resided in like number of occupants in a house and median income of an area and even the level of cell connection in a specific area. However, after the number of terrorist caught jumped nearly 500% in the first year, most people calmed down and ever since, the number of terrorist acts upon Vale is virtually zero.

He moved his chair over towards the monitors and soon all the screens changed to make it seem to form once large screen. Jaune typed in a username and password and was soon met with a large overhead view of Vale. Jaune typed in Weiss' phone number and was soon able to track her to her exact location, down to the inch.

"Alright, I got you on the map. Huh, that's weird." Jaune stated, sounding confused.

"What's up?" Weiss said into her scroll on the other side of the line. By this point, Yang and Blake were somewhat crowded around Weiss, trying to hear what Jaune was saying.

"It looks like you guys are in a large dead zone." Jaune voice was gravely and hard to understand.

"Well no shit. This building is massive. Of course there's going to be a few dead areas." Weiss said, sounding annoyed by the information she already knew.

"No, dead is in something to blocking the signal. You guys should have great reception throughout the building. But from what I'm seeing, it looks like someone has placed jammers throughout the building to block all cell signals. The only places you guys can get signal are at the corners and I'm seeing a few small gaps in the jammers range spread throughout the building." Jaune said.

"Jaune you cut out a few times there, what did you say?" Weiss asked after a brief moment of silence.

Jaune sighed. "Move towards you left, towards the outside wall of the building." Jaune said, his voice still cutting out. Weiss obliged and moved the scroll towards the large window looking out over the city. "Like this?" Weiss asked, placing the scroll on the window sill and turning on speaker mode so Yang and Blake could hear.

"Much better. I can hear you a lot better now. How's it on your end?" Jaune asked.

"Better, thanks." Weiss said. "Now back to the mission at hand."

"Right. First question: Why are you guys on a mission?!" Jaune asked suddenly.

"Okay, everything you're about to hear you can't, and I repeat, CANNOT, tell anyone about. Do you understand, Arc?" Weiss said sternly.

"Yes ma'am." Jaune said confidently, knowing that Weiss only called him Arc when it was serious.

"Okay then. We are trying to track down and eliminate someone called Red. You should have a file on them. It was created yesterday and should be blank except for a few notes at the bottom. Can you find that file?" Weiss asked.

"Give me a second." Jaune replied. The trio could hear the sound of a mechanical keys on a keyboard being hit. "Got it."

"Okay. Now, this person has at least two confirmed kills, but that number could be as high as thirteen, maybe even higher. She has killed two VIB agents and one RATF agent." Weiss explained.

"Wait, who died from the RATF?" Jaune asked.

"Cardin. She pushed him off the roof when we first got here as a warning I guess. Died on impact." Weiss solemnly explained. "I know you two didn't get along well."

"Yeah. Still, send my condolences to his family. What about his teammates?" Jaune asked.

"MIA. But they're believed to be dead. We haven't found their bodies so we're still holding out hope." Weiss explained.

"Alright. How are you guys holding out so far?" Jaune asked.

"Well…" Weiss trailed off.

"We just got our asses kicked to put it lightly." Yang interjected.

"Really?" Jaune sounded surprised.

"Yeah. She caught us off guard and completed fucked us up." This time it was Blake that spoke up.

"Did you happen it get a good look at her?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah. I got a really good look at her when she just appeared behind me and Weiss!" Yang exclaimed, still a bit shaken up from the jump scare.

"Well can you tell me what she looked like? I can use the description to fill out her file and to cross reference it with all known Vale terrorist to see if we get a hit." Jaune said.

"Oh yeah sure. Um, well for starters, she was female." Yang began.

"Yeah I got that much already. What about appearance? Facial features, eye color, hair color, height, that shit." Jaune interrupted.

"I was getting there Vomit Boy." Yang said. She could hear him sigh over the call, which made her smirk a bit. "She stood about Weiss' height. 5'7", maybe 5'8". She looked to be a few years younger, maybe 25 or 26." Yang explained.

"A lot of maybe's." Jaune said, sound unconfident in Yang.

"Hey listen! I was trying to see if she had a weapon, not trying to see if she was fuckable!" Yang said in a snappy voice.

"I mean, was she?" Jaune asked, sounding intrigued. This time it was Yang who was the one sighing. "Anyways, 5'8", 26-years-old. Her hair was black, but I thought I saw some red frosted tips. Oh, and her eyes, looked silver." Yang continued.

"Silver eyes?" Jaune asked.

"I believe so." Yang said. "Were her eyes silver, Weiss?" Yang asked, turning her attention to Weiss.

"Yeah, actually, now that you mention it." Weiss said, thinking back to just before the fight.

"Yeah. Silver eyes." Yang said, turning back to the call.

"Okay then." Jaune said, typing away at his keyboard. "Well, out of 30,000 suspected and accused terrorists in all of Vale, I have zero matches." Jaune said, unenthusiastically. All three of the girls in the room let out a disappointed sigh upon receiving the news. "I put all her information on her file. I'm just missing the name."

Just then, a loud bang on the door caused the three girls to jump and pull out their weapons. No one could be seen out through the windows on the door and surrounding it. After about 10 seconds of silence, Blake began to approach the door. Cautiously, she made her way over to the door, upon reaching it, she slid it open with force. This time, Yang remained silent and professional, keeping her weapon trained towards the door.

Blake quickly scanned the hallway in all directions but saw nothing and no one. She sighed and lowered her weapon and grabbed the handle to the door. However, instead of grabbing the metal handle, she instead grabbed a folded piece of paper tapped to the handle. She grabbed the paper and ripped it from its tapped location and closed the door.

She made her way over to the other two girls and placed the piece of paper on the table and unfolded it. It had a short message written in somewhat decent looking handwriting. It read simply:

 _That was your one and only warning. Leave now and I promise I won't  
hurt you anymore. However, if you decide to stay like the rest of them,  
then I can't guarantee you'll make it out alive. So leave. I don't want  
to hurt anyone else. This doesn't involve you._

 _~ RR_

The three girls looked at each other for a brief moment before it was Jaune that broke the silence.

"Is everyone okay? I heard a bang and then you guys went quiet." He said.

"We're fine." Blake said. "And we got some initials for you. 'RR'. Most likely first and last initials." Blake explained.

"R and R. Got it. Hey, I got a question for you guys?" Jaune asked.

"What's up?" Blake replied.

"Do we know how long this person has been in this location?" Jaune questioned.

"Well, disappearances started eight months ago so probably around that long. Why?" Blake asked.

"I'm looking at satellite images of this place from a week ago and I'm seeing nothing in the way of any type of greenery on the roof or any attempted at gardening at all. While I could be likely that's all being housed in one of the rooms inside, people usually building greenhouses on the roof, so plants can grow faster. And like I said, there's nothing on the roof. Which means they have to be buying food from somewhere and I see a gas station/convenience store right across the street. So here's my plan. I'm going to call that place to see if they recognize someone matching the description you guys gave me. I text you guys when I'm done." Jaune explained.

"That actually sounds like a good idea." Weiss said.

"Yeah. Good job, Jaune." Yang said.

"Thanks, guys. Text you in a bit. Stay safe. Don't die." Jaune said before the call went dead.

"Alright team, based on what we just experienced, we got what appears to be an elite assassin on our hands. So that means we need to be hyper aware at all times. So no more half assed searches, no more just standing around, and no more texting guys on dating apps." Blake said, glaring towards Yang.

"I got it." Yang said, rolling her eyes.

"Okay then, let's get moving. By my calculations, we are only roughly 10% done with the search of the building. So let's get back to work." And with that, the trio picked up their weapons, made their way to the door, and began clearing rooms one by one again.


	3. Chapter 3: Separation

"So that's the entire third floor done?" Weiss asked as the trio neared one of the staircases.

"Yep. We're about 30% done." Blake responded.

"And it only took us, what, nearly 2 hours?" Yang said, sounding exhausted already.

"Are you tired?" Weiss asked, taken aback by the comment. "Yang Xiao Long, the woman who can outrun even the toughest of men, is tired after only 2 hours of actual work.

"No, Ice Queen. I'm not sleepy tired, I'm just over it. This is so tedious and frankly, after that first encounter, it's gotten quite boring." Yang said, holstering her weapon and throwing her arms behind her head.

"Well don't relax quite yet. We still got 2 stories of classrooms to go through plus some." Blake said.

"Plus some? I thought you said there was only 3 stories?" Yang asked.

"On paper, yeah. But those rendering used old maps and blueprints. There COULD be a small basement area that was missed." Blake explained.

"Great. More work." Yang said, grabbing her shotgun and headed towards the staircase.

"Just don't forget the mission." Weiss said, following Yang down the large set of stairs, followed up by Blake in the rear. As they made their way towards the second floor, they checked every little vent they could see, still fearful of the little girl making another entrance.

"You ever think about what this place used to be. Like at one point this place was bustling with kids and teenager just trying to learn. Now it's just us and a psychopathic child running around the place with a sniper rifle and a scythe." Yang said as she made her way onto the second floor and began walking down the skybridge path right in front of her. She took about six steps before realizing no one responded to her. "Guys? What's the, hold… up?" Yang asked, tripping over her words as she turned her head to see what had stopped Blake and Weiss in their tracks.

At the foot of the staircase, completely blocking the path to their left, were nearly a hundred desks stacked floor to ceiling across the entire walkway. The desks were nearly four rows deep and seemed to be moved somewhat recently as there was little dust on them. But it wasn't the strange arrangement of desks that held them up, it was what was attached to the desks.

Tied up to the desks, with arms and legs outstretched was the body of the missing VIB agent, their body used for target practice, throwing knives embed all over the chest and stomach regions of their body. Their eyes had been removed, leaving hollow black voids in their place. Blood coated everything on their person and it seemed that both legs were broken and both arms dislocated. The sight was no less than a nightmare, even for the highly trained, seasoned veterans.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Blake said, covering her mouth.

"Beat you to it." Weiss said, before turning and throwing up near the stairwell.

Yang couldn't look away from the horrendous sight in front of her. She wanted to comfort her friend or at least shield her eyes, but she found the sight almost entrancing. As she continued to stare at it, she noticed a folded piece of paper on the body, held in place by one of the many knives. Upon seeing this, Yang snapped out of her trance and made her way over to the body. By this point, Weiss had stopped vomiting and both her and Blake watched as Yang made her way over to the body to retrieve the note. Yang quickly snatched the paper and made her way back towards Weiss.

Yang began to unfold the paper to reveal a small, hand-written note.

 _He would have lived if you had just left._

 _-RR_

Yang could feel the blood begin to boil when she read this. She and the rest of the trio had friends in the VIB and although they gave each other shit for their jobs, they still respected one another. This felt like a personal attack. Her body temperature just felt like it kept rising until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Blake

"We'll get her." Blake said sternly. Yang nodded and stuffed the note into her pocket.

"Weiss, you good?" Yang asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine. We should head that way." Weiss motioned, pointing her thumb over her shoulder to the hallway, opposite of the body. Blake and Yang nodded so Weiss turned to face that direction, before once again being stopped. "Hey, what's that?" She asked quizzically. Blake and Yang quickly made their way towards Weiss and they too were stopped by what seemed to be a small fire the size of orange positioned directly in front of capped nozzle.

"How'd we not see this?" Yang asked. Blake and Weiss just looked at her. "Good point."

"Why is that nozzle capped?" Weiss asked.

"Why is it hissing?" Yang said.

"Does it smell like gas to you guys?" Blake questioned. That's when it clicked in everyone's head at once. They all looked at each other with a face that said **RUN.** Without a second thought, they trio bolted down the hallway directly in front of the staircase, and not a moment too soon.

As soon as they ran, a precisely aimed shot ran out and took off the cap and part of the nozzle, releasing high pressured gas onto the small fire, turning it into a large flamethrower. The flames easily reached the body of the VIB agent, completely engulfing it. By this point, the trio had stopped and turned around, only to be met with a sight and smell of a decaying body being scorched by a high-powered flame thrower.

They could only watch as the flame thrower quickly died down until all that remained were small localized fires and a scorched and smoking body. Yang and Blake turned their heads while Weiss gagged but somehow avoided throwing up for a second time. Unable to do anything else, they continued down the path they were headed until they were stopped in their tracks once again.

Right in the middle of the hallway were the two intersecting walkways met. There was what seemed to be a man wearing a large overcoat with a black sack over his head. There was a small pool of blood beneath him and it appeared as if his hand were tied behind his back. The trio un-holstered their weapons, still weary of the encounter just seconds prior and slowly approached the man since although they were scared, it was their job.

When the man under the hood let out a loud cough, it nearly caused Yang to shoot her gun at him it startled her so much. Upon realizing the man was still alive, they began to approach him at a faster pace. Weiss was the first to reach him and in one quick motion, reached over and yanked the hood off of him.

"Dove!" She exclaimed, realizing it was Dove Bronzewing, one of the other members of team CRDL.

Yang also rushed over to him upon realizing who it was. "Holy shit dude! Are you okay?!" She said, sounding panicked.

"You guys…" He stuttered, seeming very tired and in pain.

"Just relax, Dove. We'll get you out of there." Weiss said, inspecting his arms and head for injuries. And she found plenty. Both of his wrists were slashed horizontally, and he had various cuts and scrapes all up and down his right arm. His left arm seemed to be spared from the cuts but wasn't uninjured as it appeared to be broken.

"You guys… gotta…" He continued, trying to force a sentence. By this point, Blake had been keeping a slight distance, still wary about the previous situation. But now, she was beginning to worry about what was under overcoat. Slowly, she approached him and began to remove it. Yang saw what she was doing and began to help. She cut the restraints binding his hands together and began to pull the coat over his head. Weiss meanwhile was still inspecting his head and neck for injuries.

"You guys… gotta… get out of here." He said, as the coat was taken off. The sight that follow shook the trio to their core. Strapped to his body were about six grenades, all in a single belt. By this time Weiss notices and shot straight up, fear gripping her body. Yang was next to notice, and she too stood straight up and began to take a few steps back. Blake, who was the one who initially was the one to reveal the horrible sight, was the last to notice. She was too distracted in her task to take off the coat to notice the bombs strapped to his chest. When she finally did notice, fear hit her like a bullet train and she too shot straight and bolted backwards, the coat still firmly in her grasp. It was then when she felt a noticeable tug, followed by a pinging noise. The trio could only watch as a string, which had been looped through all six pins and tied off to each one of the handles, came flying out and off, pinging and bouncing against the tile floor.

Dove looked Blake in the eyes and simply said "Run…". The trio heeded his advice, and all took off in different directions. Blake back the way they came, Yang to the left, and Weiss to the right. The following second, a loud explosion rocked the building. The force of the explosion caused all three of them to get knocked over, the sound hurting their ears. A fine red spray splattered against every wall, the ceiling and the floor.

The air fell silent as the trio slowly began to rise to their feet. However, as they all began to look at one another, the silence was broken once again as the floor and walls around where the explosion occurred began to crumble. Seconds later, an entire section of the aging, decaying building collapsed. The collapse kicked up a ton of dust, causing the trio to have to cover their mouths. When the dust settled, the entire center part had collapsed, bringing four floors worth of rubble crumbling down. The explosion plus the weight of the falling debris had created a 30-foot wide gap in the path, making crossing it impossible.

The three girls slowly made their way over to the hole, being careful as they approached it since parts were still collapsing and falling off.

"You guys okay?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." Blake responded.

"About as good as I can be right now." Yang remarked.

"What the fuck do we do now?" Weiss questioned, fear and worry mixed in with her voice.

"Well, seeing as how jumping for it is basically out of the question, I say we split up." Yang answered, inspecting the large hole.

"I'm with Yang on this. This whole place loops around so just clear room to room by yourselves. We'll meet in the cafeteria on the first floor." Blake said, laying out some plans.

"And what about our friend? What do we do if we run into her?" Weiss asked.

Blake and Yang sighed. They hadn't been able to take her on when it was 3v1. They all knew a 1 on 1 would probably end poorly.

"Your best. Do you best." Blake said. Yang and Weiss nodded, knowing that this was their only hope. With that, the three girls turned and began walking away from each other and began to make their sweeps.

Meanwhile, from the vents above them, Ruby let out a silent chuckle.

 _Just as planned_

/

"Dude, I'm telling you, it's the ass."

"Nah bro, the tits are where it's at!"

"But a woman's ass is the selling point!"

"But when you're looking her in the eyes while fucking, the tits are right there."

"Maybe in the positions you like."

The two cops were chilling in their police car, parked just outside the main entrance of the abandoned school. They were a part of a small team, consisting of just one other squad car and two more officers. The job, while easy, was incredibly boring. This boredom always led to some strange and interesting conversations, like the one the two officers were having now.

"Listen, let's just agree to disagree, okay?"

"I fully disagree with that."

"Whatever. What time is it?"

"About 11. We still got six more hours."

"Yeah. I know. However, Johnson and Smith should be back from their break by now."

"You know them, they love to…"

The conversation was interrupted by the muffled but booming explosion coming from the building that startled the duo. Both men turned around right in time to hear the sound of concrete collapsing and see a large plum of dust rise from the center.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"I… I don't know. Controlled demolition?"

"Did you see any trucks around here, because I sure as hell don't!"

"I'm just spitballing ideas here, man!"

Just then, their radio buzzed to life.

"Anderson, Jones. Did you guys hear that?" A man said.

"What, you mean the fucking explosion that just scared the shit out of us?" Anderson replied.

"I'll take that as a yes." The man simply said.

"Me and Johnson are headed back your way. I would go ahead and call this in." A different man said.

"Got it. What should we do after that?" Jones asked.

"Well, enter the premises is a no-go, so I would just call it in and document everything you can. This could be huge. If Ozpin sent more men in for this person, there's probably going to be a firestorm." The man continued.

"Alright, see you guys when you get back." Anderson said. "You wanna call it in? Or should I?"

"I'll do it. So much for the boring, easy job." Jones said, picking up his radio.


	4. Chapter 4: A Friendly Game

Weiss finished up the final classroom in her hallway, marking the door with a red marker she had. She turned around, back towards the large collapsed center path. It had only been about fifteen minutes since it fell, but it was still crumbling, smaller chunks falling down into the hole. Weiss glanced passed it and noticed Yang walking out of one of the classrooms, her weapon at her side.

"Hey! Find anything?" She yelled out, trying to make contact with her partner. It took a few seconds, but Yang eventually whipped around and noticed Weiss. Weiss say Yang make some gesture, but due to the distance between the two, she couldn't tell what it was, so Weiss assumed she just didn't hear her.

"Did you find anything?" She yelled once more, louder. This time, Yang seemed to understand some of it because eventually, Yang called back to Weiss.

"No!" Weiss heard faintly, the sound of Yang's voice being muffled by the distance.

"Okay. Met in the hallway over there!" Weiss yelled back, gesturing and pointing to the hallway to her right. Yang didn't move at first, so Weiss just began to gesture again. This time, Yang did seem to move, but almost like she had heard something. Weiss watched as Yang raised her weapon, and moved to left, towards the direction of where Blake went. Weiss shrugged it off externally but internally, she was a bit worried for Yang's safety.

Sure, she had been the drill instructor for the RATF for the last three years and was physically fit, but they were facing off against an unknown assailant who seemed to always be a few steps ahead. Weiss worrying about Yang in turn made Weiss worry about herself. Weiss began to panic slightly, fearful of what may come next. She had already watched two of her friends die and a third be used as target practice and a reminder. She had seen some fucked up shit in the past, but nothing recent and certainly nothing even close to this magnitude.

Weiss took a deep breath. She concluded that if this R.R. girl wasn't going to fight fair, then neither would she. Weiss might be on a mission to apprehend the suspect, but Weiss decided to make an executive decision that this was no longer about bring the suspect in for justice, but a true fight for survival. With that new narrative in her mind, she decided to pull out her secret weapon, or rather, ammo.

Weiss reached into one of her front pockets and pull out six .44 Magnum Hollow Point rounds. She concluded that if R.R. was gonna rush her or do anything to her friends, she would put an end to it, right then, right there. She found a solo desk out in the hallway and quickly changed the standard ammo out for her special ammo. She noted that while she only had six rounds, she would most likely only need one. She shoved the six standard rounds into the same pocket she pulled the hollow points from. Weiss had a smirk when she finished changing out the ammo, noting mentally that she felt just a bit safer, although deep down she knew it was most likely just down to placebo.

"Ooh. That's some fancy ammo." A voice said from behind Weiss. Weiss spun around and was met with the face of the girl, smile creepily at Weiss. Weiss quickly tried to pull up her weapon, but it was too late. Almost as if the girl predicted the move, she grabbed Weiss' right arm and forced it over her head, the gun now pointed towards the sky. With her other arm, the girl elbowed Weiss in the face as hard as she could, knocking Weiss unconscious almost immediately.

/

"Wakey, wakey. Rise and shine sleepy head." A voice said, the voice seeming to echo in Weiss' brain as she slowly came back to her senses. "Hey!" Weiss heard, before a hard slap could be felt across her face, jolting her awake. "You awake now?" The voice said. Weiss responded with a grumble, her face still stinging from both the slap and the elbow she took.

"Okay good. I thought I killed you with that hit." The voice said, sounding a bit worried. Weiss, still not fully awake, began to take notice of where she was.

The room she was in was poorly lit, save for a single light above the desk Weiss was sitting at, but she could still tell it was some sort of classroom. There were student and teacher desks scattered across the room in various states of decay and quality. She could see some graffiti on the wall, dimly lit by the single light in the room. The walls in the room were falling part, chunks of the drywall already missing. Weiss herself was seated a small desk with an attached chair. The desk seemed to be more pristine than the others in the room, like it was regularly cleaned

Weiss tried to move around more but found it to be very difficult. She looked down and saw the situation she was in. Her hands were tied behind the back of the chair and there was also a think piece of rope wrapped tightly around her waist, keeping her restrained to the chair.

"Don't bother trying to escape. I know for a fact that it's impossible to escape from those knots." The voice said. Weiss looked up and saw her assailant. She was standing in the dark and her back was turned to Weiss.

"Hey! Let me go! Untie me!" Weiss yelled. Her assailant just let out a heavy sigh and dropped her shoulders.

"Why do you guys always say that? Do you think I brought you here just to untie you and follow your commands?" The girl said. She then turned to face Weiss and Weiss notice she was holding her weapon.

"Hey! That's mine!" Weiss yelled. The girl gave her a dirty look.

"Yeah. I know. I stole it off your body when I brought you hear." She said, moving towards Weiss, inspecting the weapon. "It's a beautiful gun. Taurus Model 44, chambered in .44 Magnum, six round chamber with a matching 6.5-inch barrel. It can do some serious damage," she said, suddenly putting the barrel of the gun against Weiss' forehead, causing her breath to sharpen. "Especially since you loaded it in hollow point rounds. I gotta say, that's a first for me." She said, quickly yanking the gun away from Weiss' forehead, letting her relax. She began to walk away before stopping. "What's your name?" She asked Weiss.

"Fuck off." Weiss responded, giving the girl the same dirty look she gave her.

The girl once again sighed. "They always say that too. Why do they always say that? Why don't they give me a straight answer for once?!" The girl said, becoming increasingly angry. Suddenly, she pulled back the hammer on the revolver and pointed it at Weiss. "Just tell me your name or I WILL kill you." She said, tightly gripped the gun.

Weiss decided to play it smart and follow along with the girl's questions. "It's Weiss." She responded. The girl relaxed, lowering the weapon. "There! Was that so hard? My name is Ruby. Nice to meet you." She said, still holding the gun.

"Nice to meet you too, Ruby." Weiss said, being very careful with her words.

"Thank you. How old are you, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"I'm 26." Weiss responded, a bit confused as to why the girl would ask that question.

"Ah, you only a couple years older than me then." Ruby responded, suddenly pointing the gun back at Weiss. "Now, who sent you here?"

"Uh, what?" Weiss responded.

"Who sent you here? Why are you here? What's your mission? Simple questions." Ruby responded, pushing the gun into her temple.

"I'm not gonna tell you." Weiss replied.

"Let me remind you that I can kill you." Ruby said, still shoving the barrel of the gun into Weiss' forehead

"But you need information from me. You wouldn't kill me." Weiss said with a smirk, believing she had the high ground.

"And how do you know that?" Ruby responded, placing her finger on the trigger.

"I don't." Weiss said, moving her head forward, pushing the gun even harder against her head.

Ruby sighed and quickly pulled the gun away from Weiss, causing her to relax and fall forward a bit. "You're right, I can't kill you. I need information from you about you and your friends and killing you would make getting that information harder to get." Ruby said, turning away from Weiss. "Which is why you're gonna tell me. Everything. With pleasure and a smile on your face." She continued, peaking over her shoulder at Weiss.

"Oh yeah? And how's that?" Weiss replied, a comedical smile on her face.

"With a game." Ruby simply replied.

"What game?" Weiss asked, a bit worried.

Ruby just smiled. "Tell me, what you do know about the Great War?" She said, changing the subject.

Weiss thought about not answering at first but decided to humor the younger girl. "It was fought between the then four kingdom. Vacuo and Vale on one side, Mistral and Atlas on the other. Depending on who you ask, it lasted anywhere from five years to over a hundred. It was won by Vacuo and Vale when the King of Vale deployed the first and only ever use of nuclear weapons against a large force of Atlas and Mistral soldiers. The other three kingdoms bowed down to him in fear and wanted him to rule, but he decided not to do so. The four kingdoms met on the island of Vytal to sign a peace treaty and we've been at peace ever since." Weiss replied, pulling everything she could from her school day teaching.

"That's a great summary of the war. Prefect for a PowerPoint presentation. But what about the people? The ones who fought. The actual people who did the killing?" Ruby asked.

"Well there were both good and bad people on both sides. Most notably…" Weiss began.

"Did you ever learn about Magna Russia?" Ruby interjected, sounding impatient.

Weiss thought for a moment. "No. I don't think I did." She said, sounding confused yet intrigued.

Ruby sighed. "Magna Russia was a general for Vacuo during the Great War. He was credited for helping Vacuo leader push Atlas and Mistral out of Vacuo. He was even given the title as lead intelligence officer for the Vacuo army. However, unlike most intelligence officers of his time that used information from spies and lookouts, he preferred a more, hands on approach. Which is why his main method of gaining information was through torture. He argued that they were just intensive interrogations, and no one was getting hurt. Whether or not the Vacuo government believed that is still unknown. What is known is how effective he was at getting information out." She explained, facing away from Weiss, the gun still in her hands.

"He had a variety of different methods he used. Bone breaking, limbs removal, burning of the face and, other body parts. All time tested to be very effective at getting what he wanted. However, his favorite method was one that would put his name on the map. One that would prove to be the most effective, not because it hurt the body, but the mind. He simply called it Magna Russia's Roulette." Ruby said, turning back around to face Weiss, suddenly slamming the revolver down on the desk in front of Weiss.

"The setup was simple. First, he took six lucky prisoners of war and sat them down at a round table with six seats, each coated in a red paint-like splattering. Then, he took his personal, gold plated six shot revolver," Weiss explained, picking up the revolver.

"Unloaded all but one of the bullets," she said as she unloaded all but one of Weiss hollow point rounds, the rounds clinking against the desk.

"Spun the chamber counter-clockwise," she explained, spinning the chamber.

"Before slamming the chamber shut and placing the gun down on a table, the barrel pointed at one of the contestants, as he called them," She continued, placing the gun down at the table, pointed as Weiss as she gulped.

"Now, five out of six times, when the hammer was pulled back and the trigger was pulled, nothing happened." Ruby explained, suddenly cocking the hammer back and pulling the trigger on the gun, causing Weiss to flinch dramatically, only to be met with the sound of a dry fire.

Ruby smirked. "However, if you were lucky contestant number six, when that trigger was pulled," She said, cocking the hammer back again.

BANG!

Ruby pulled the trigger, the gun aimed just over Weiss' head. The bullet left the chamber at 1380 feet per second, passing just over Weiss' head in the blink of an eye before impacting against the wall, the hollow point fragmenting in all different directions. "Well, you get the point."

"Now, the person holding the gun varied from session to session. Sometimes, Magna would have a helper. Sometimes, Magna forced the players to do it to themselves. And sometimes, he just did it himself. But no matter who held the gun, there was one constant, the gun was always aimed at the head, for maximum fear." Ruby said with an evil grin.

By now, Weiss was officially scared, and it showed. Never in her nearly ten years of service was she put into a situation like the one she was in now. There was a genuine chance of death at the hands of a psychopath. And the way things looked before she was kidnapped, there were very few chances of rescue. Her only chance was to somehow survive this, but it looked slim.

"Now since you want to be difficult, you get to be my lucky contestant. However, this game isn't really fun for one person. So, I'll make it even. I'll play too." She said with a grin while loading up another bullet. Weiss looked at her with shock and confusion. She wasn't sure if she should be more worried or less, given the type of person she was.

Ruby placed the bullet in the chamber and spun it. "You know what, I'll even go first." She said, suddenly slammed the chamber shut, pulling back the hammer and pointing the gun at her own head. Weiss recoiled severely, turning her head and shutting her eyes, waiting for the inevitable bang.

CLICK!

"See, not so bad. Now it's your turn." Ruby said, placing the gun on the table. Weiss opener her eyes and looked at the gun. Surely this had to be a dream. Or a nightmare. There was no way this girl was forcing her to play a game where the only goal is to not kill yourself. Surely, there had to be another way.

"Oh, silly me. I forgot you were tied up." Ruby said, sounding like a clumsy teenage girl trying to be cute. Ruby picked the gun back up, pulled the hammer back and pointed the gun at Weiss. Weiss froze like a deer in headlights, unable to move as she looked down the barrel of her own gun. The person holding it, smiling like a kid in a candy store.

CLICK!

Weiss flinched, expecting that to be the last thing she ever saw. By now, Weiss was breathing heavily and beginning to feel nauseous. Ruby seemed to have noticed this and walked over to a corner of the room to grab a small trash can. She walked back over to Weiss and placed it at her feet, and not a moment too soon. For the second time in under an hour, Weiss began to throw up, the contents being that of whatever food was left in her stomach and the stomach acid itself, burning her throat and mouth as it left her body. As she was doing so, she noticed that the area floor around her seat was darker than the rest of the floor. When Weiss finished and looked up, Ruby was leaned up against the desk in front of her with her arms crossed, just looking at Weiss.

"How you feeling?" She asked in a monotone voice.

Weiss spit towards Ruby. "You're a monster." She replied.

Ruby shrugged. "Fair." She said, standing back up. "You know, this is very similar to how the contestant felt when Magna played this game. The purpose of this game was to get information as you know. The way that was achieved was through physiological torture instead of physical. Magna knew that he couldn't get information from someone if their brains were splattered against the walls, so he was very meticulous in how he arranged the contestants. The first two would usually just be foot soldiers or people who already told him all he needed to know. People who weren't worth anything. That way they would either be used as examples as to how the game worked for the other four or would die first. Win-win either way he saw it.

The next two would be ones who still had information that needed to be shared but had already shared some of what they had stored. The third and fourth seats were usually the ones to die so the information he still needed to extracted wasn't too important. Usually just troop movements or supply routes, stuff that he could find out other ways if the person was to suddenly decided to repaint the walls with his own brain matter.

The final two were the most important people in that room. Spies, high ranking military combatants close to the leaders, sometimes, even the leaders themselves. These guys had the most valuable information but also some of the toughest nuts to crack. Most of these guys were first time offenders, seeing the game played out for the first time. And if that gun got to them, they were figuratively and literally shitting themselves, simple because of odds.

When the game first starts out, there is a one in six chance you get killed, or 16% chance. Next trigger pull, one in five, or 20% chance. Then a one in four, 25%. One in three, 33% chance. However, if it got down to the final two, that chance jumps to 50%. Meaning, you had basically the coins flip chance of either redecorating the chair or handing it off to the next guy. And if that gun clicked in your hand, welp, contestant number six was guaranteed to do some repainting since his chance was 100%." Ruby explained.

"Right now, we're sitting at a 25% chance and it's my turn. I like those odds." Ruby said with a grin, turning the gun on herself, cocking the hammer back and pulling the trigger.

CLICK!

Weiss flinched again, this time keeping her eyes open. Her breath sharpened upon the click, mean Weiss had to go again. Ruby meanwhile barely moved, the grin remaining the whole time.

"Ouch. That means you got a 33% chance for your turn. Halfway done." Ruby said, pointing the gun at Weiss, cocking the hammer back. She pointed it at Weiss, the barrel pressed up against her forehead. Weiss began to breathe more heavily as she saw Ruby begin to pull the trigger. Weiss closed her eyes, fearing the worst.

"Before I pull this trigger, anything you want to share?" Ruby said. Weiss felt the warm touch of the barrel leave her forehead and she snapped her eyes open. She began to hyperventilate, fear racking her body.

"It's okay, take your time. I know this is stressful." Ruby said, twirling the gun around. Weiss felt nauseous again, her head spinning and feeling like she was gonna faint.

"B… Bl… Blake. An…and Yang…" Weiss said, trying to regain composure.

"Blake and Yang? Are those the names of the other two you were with?" Ruby asked quizzically. Weiss only nodded, still trying to compose herself. "We got names!" Ruby said in a cheerful voice. "See? What wasn't so hard!" Ruby said, squishing Weiss' cheeks like a baby before pushing her face away, causing Weiss' head to move backwards.

"Now I'm going to ask you a simple question: Why are you here?" Ruby asked, turning very serious very fast.

"We… we… were sent out here… to… to…" Weiss said, still not fully composed.

"To do what? Arrest me? Kill me? Did the RATF not see what happened to the last group that tried that?!" Ruby said angrily, almost yelling. "Who sent you?"

Weiss took a deep breath. "Pull the trigger." She said with a determined look.

Ruby look back at her with surprise. "What?" She asked.

"Pull the trigger. Pull it. Pull the fucking trigger!" Weiss said through gritted teeth, starring Ruby in the eyes. Ruby obliged, quickly shoving the gun against Weiss' head so hard, she was forced to move back a bit, never breaking eye contact with Ruby. She pulled the hammer back and…

CLICK!

Both Ruby and Weiss recoiled. Weiss started breathing heavily again and became very scared since she believed that the gun was going to go off. Ruby meanwhile began to pace around the room, stifling a chuckle.

"You know, you're not the first person I've played this game with, not even close. But you are the first to provide your own weapon and ammo and be the only person to willing want that trigger pulled. I gotta say, I'm impressed. Most people are weeping wrecks by this point, willing to tell me their whole life stories just for a chance at survival. But you are willing to die for your cause. Too bad it's flawed." Ruby said.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, regaining her composure.

"You'll find out." Ruby said with a smirk. Then, she looking Weiss right in the eyes and raised the gun to her head and pulled the hammer back. Weiss held her breathe. If the gun didn't go off, then… Weiss couldn't think of what would happen next, she could only focus on Ruby. Weiss inhaled and held her breath as Ruby passed momentarily, the gun pressed up against her temple and her finger on the trigger.

Without breaking eye contact, she winked at Weiss and pulled the trigger.

CLICK!

Weiss exhaled sharply and once again, began to hyperventilate. This time, her breathing was mixed with tears.

"No… no… no…" She whimpered as she lowered her head, tears rolling off her cheek and into her lap.

"Oops." Ruby said, the smirk never faulting. Weiss raised her head, anger and confusion plastered across her tear covered face.

"You rigged it." Weiss said.

"Maybe. Perhaps I did rig it. Perhaps I got lucky. Or perhaps I simply counted the shots. Whatever the case, it really doesn't matter now. What matters is that these are your final moments. Probably not how you envisioned them. Tied to a chair in a dimly lit room, forced to play a friendly game of who's the luckiest." Ruby said, looking at Weiss, who was silently crying to herself. Ruby sighed. "It's a real shame. But, life ain't fair. Sometimes, it likes to shit down your throat and watch you suffocate on it. Oh well, no time like the present."

Ruby then picked up the loaded firearm and point it at Weiss. She steadied her arm, focused right in between the eyes. The sound of the hammer cocking back cause Weiss to look up, her eyes red and bloodshot from the tears. Her eyes met Ruby's who were void of any real sympathy. Ruby just looked back at Weiss, her aim steady.

"Ah. I can't do this." Ruby said, lowering the weapon. This caused Weiss to relax but she kept her guard up. "When you execute someone, especially with hanging and firing squads, you are supposed to blindfold them or put a bag over their head. That way the executioner wouldn't be able to see their distorted faces. And frankly, I really don't want to see that from you. I don't want my last memory of you to be your blood-soaked face. Hang on, let me find a bag." Ruby placed the gun down on the table, still pointed at Weiss while she scoured the room, looking for a bag.

Weiss began to tear up again. For a split second, she thought she was saved. But it was just this, this monster toying with her. She sniffed and looked at her gun. She knew it was loaded, and all it needed was a trigger pull to go off. If only she could reach it, she could end this nightmare. She began to struggle in her seat, trying to loosen her binding, trying desperately to reach her own weapon which was just inches away. Her struggling only increased as time passed as she got more and more desperate, her tears whipping off her cheek and landing on her lap and the ground surrounding the desk.

"This should work." Ruby said from one of the corners. Weiss suddenly stopped struggling, her quite crying quickly turning into sobbing, realizing there was nothing she could do. Ruby returned to the desk, holding a small potato sack. "I guess it was cooking day at school." She said with almost a true, friendly smirk as she placed the sack over Weiss' head. Weiss felt the sack engulf her and she could see the world around her go dark. Her sobbing continued, becoming slightly muffled by the sack.

"Try to think of happy thoughts, okay?" Ruby said as she picked up the gun off the desk. Weiss heard the hammer cock back, setting her future in stone. Her sobs became nothing more than a pathetic whimper and she shut her eyes, although what was the point now?

She was going to die and that was the end of it. She would never see her friends again, never fall in love and start a family, never do any of the things she wanted. Instead, she would die her, strapped to a chair in the dark, a fearful and crying mess. It felt like an eternity since she last heard the hammer of her own weapon get cocked back, and Weiss was beginning to believe that…

BANG!


End file.
